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Fuck. I abruptly leaned back in my seat, sending it wobbling onto two legs, almost tipping it over. When I’d recovered from my near-death experience, I cleared my throat. “So, uh. Did you have a good birthday?”
The atmosphere instantly changed as Theo’s mouth twisted. “My parents didn’t wish me a happy birthday. I suppose…I told you we were more or less estranged. I shouldn’t have been expecting to hear from them.” His voice grew quiet, laced with hurt. “There was a part of me that hoped… Never mind.”
All thoughts of keeping my distance were gone as I flew out of my chair, pulling him upright and wrapping my arms around him. “They’re fucking stupid if they can’t see how amazing you are, Theo. They don’t deserve a second of your time.”
His arms came around me, and he buried his face in the crook of my neck with a sigh. “Thanks. I know, or I know that should be the case. It’s something I’ve been working on in therapy. But it still doesn’t stop it hurting when they don’t even acknowledge my birthday.”
I kissed the side of his head. “I know, baby. But I’ll be here to tell you just how fucking incredible you are, okay?” I paused. “Not too often, though. We don’t want you to get even more arrogant than you already are.”
“Brat,” he said, lifting his head to grin at me. “You’re the arrogant, cocky one.”
“Takes one to know one.” I grinned back at him.
“Jordan.” His smile disappeared.
“Theo.” Had his face always been this close to mine?
At the same time, we both sprang apart, clearing our throats. Throwing myself back into my chair, I noticed Theo discreetly adjusting himself before he began to pace the room. I pulled my phone from my pocket in an attempt to distract myself from my own inconvenient boner, scrolling through the photos I’d taken in the club earlier.
“Theo?”
“Yeah?” The little rasp in his voice was so fucking sexy.
For fuck’s sake. My body and my brain were both betraying me, and I was trying so hard to be on my best behaviour.
“Uh, do you mind if I post this?” I held up my phone so he could see the screen. He stopped his pacing, leaning down to view the image.
“You want to post a photo with me in it?”
Why did he sound so surprised? Probably because I’d never posted a photo of the two of us before. Not that it was a photo of the two of us—Grant, Reuben, Lars, and Ainsley were all in the picture. But this would be the first time I’d ever shared an image of him to my social media.
“Yeah, if you don’t mind.”
He shrugged casually, but there was a small, pleased smile on his face, and it made me feel warm inside. “If you want to.”
“I do.” In case he changed his mind, I quickly shared the image, captioning it “Happy birthday @theolewin_official” and tagged him and our teammates. “It’s done.”
“Thank you. For…” He shook his head, leaving the sentence unfinished. “I can’t put it into words.”
My gaze fixed on his gorgeous face, and my heart skipped a beat.
“Okay.” I climbed to my feet, pocketing my phone. “You know how I said we had willpower? Mine’s running out, so I’m gonna go back to my own room. Unless…unless you want me to stay.”
“You know I want you to stay,” he said in a low voice. “But we can’t do this.”
“I know.” Forcing my feet to move, I backed away from him, towards the door. My fingers closed around the handle. “Happy birthday, Theo.”
“Thanks. Goodnight, Jordan.”
I opened the door. “Night.”
It took every bit of my remaining willpower to close the door behind me and walk away.
33
JORDAN
“Thanks for meeting me today. I know you’ve been busy.”
